Free of Me, More of Thee
This year the Lord has given me a word for 2018. I don’t always get a word. Often I get a song whose theme is something God knows I will need that year. This year I not only got a word, I got a song to go along with it.
My song is Frontiers. My word is SELFLESS. I believe God is wanting me to move from selfish to selfless as I serve Him and interact with others. Why is it to easy to put “me first”?
About the time I got that word I was reading a book by Sharon Hodde Miller.
Free of Me is a introspective look inside and figuring out that “life is better when it’s not about you”! And I chose this book particularly because of what God was already speaking to me about at the end of 2017…Selfless.
She begins with changing our look at the Bible, from it’s a book about me to it’s not a book about me but a book about God. She cites Jen Wilkin’s from her book Women of the Word as she turns our focus of the scriptures.
This is also a theme of the newest Bible study by Jen Wilkin, one of my favorite Bible teachers (and who will be at my church Long Hollow, Hendersonville TN in February!). Her study is God of Creation. Jen reminded me that Genesis is about GOD even more so than creation! And if I study the Bible looking for God rather than for myself, I will find myself and my identity will be from Him alone!
Sharon talks about the kinds of God we look for as we read scripture: the self-help God, the self-serving God, the self-exalting God, the self-image God, OR we will look for THE ONE TRUE GOD. Not only does she talk about how we make God about us, but also how we do that same with family, appearance, possessions, friendships, calling and church. When we forget ourselves we find a healthy look at all these other things.
The last part of her book is a practical guide to being free of me! One of the ways she says we can be free of ourselves is to praise, realizing God’s character is the center of our worship. Sharon reminds us that we can worship for reasons other than praising God for who He is: “There is a key difference between the worship of God and superficial distractions. On is an escape, the other is a return.” She doesn’t advise neglecting self but refocusing self outward to God and others.
This has been a huge encouragement to accept God’s 2018 word for me this year as I seek to know Him better and become more SELFLESS. Has God given you a word for the year? How are you doing with it?
Banner photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash
